Okay, most people who know me know I like a good sci-fi and fantasy and comics stuff. But where do I draw the line? What is a "good" sci-fi, fantasy, comic and a "bad" one. Well, good is a great story, great visual effects, great acting, and positive message. Bad is really cheesy effects that looks like it was done by a Gr. 9 stage show, the story is lame, the acting is atrocious, and more. Now where do I draw the line? Things like Star Wars/Star Trek/Dr Who/Stargate/Firefly/Farscape/Babylon 5/etc... I know are not real, the ideologies of the characters and philosophies are unique. Aliens aren't real either - so far as we know. Now as far as fantasy - things like Narnia/Lord of the Rings are good showing the power from God - even if it is veiled - you look long enough and you can see where Gandalf got his powers from. But things like Harry Potter where you know it wasn't God that gave them their powers, but the other guy, and they teach kids to use witchcraft to satisfy themselves and so on - a real indoctrination into witchcraft - i draw the line there. I will never show my kids a Harry Potter film.
Comics? I'm picky there too. Most of the mainstays of say Superman, Batman, Hulk, Spiderman, are still decent for the most part. I stay away from characters like Spawn, Ghost Rider, Hellboy, and the like. I like DC's Zauriel, the Christian comics series Archangels by Patrick Scott, Angel Wars (although this leans towards the kids). it's too bad there aren't more Christian comics out there. Not ones that all they do is have 25 pages of someone preaching about Jesus, but ones that have great characters, good stories, superheroes, and they come at it with from a Christian perspective. The same for sci-fi and fantasy - there should be more Christian elements. Instead, a lot of companies won't produce it unless it is Veggie Tales or something similar. Sad.
If there were heroes of old empowered by the Holy Spirit to do great things (Moses, Elijah, Samson, Solomon, etc) then why not have modern comics telling of superheroes who got their powers from the Lord? It could be a great thing, a great alternative to what has been put out there. Just food for thought because Christianity is not supposed to be "here's recordings of us sharing our faith for a story" but our faith is supposed to be in every area of our lives - so think of this in terms of writing superheroes - it's in every part of their lives. They're not going around sharing the Gospel as their superhero duty, it should be just something that ebbs out from them as they do what they do like us in our day to day jobs. Same with sci-fi and fantasy - God is in the middle of a crisis in "middle earth" or in "a galaxy far, far away." People living their lives and how they live can either give them a chance to share the gospel or cause people to turn away. Yes take every opportunity to preach the Word, but when we're doing our jobs, are we sitting there on the assembly lines or teaching or digging or computing saying things like, "Now as I do this, I am reminded of John chapter..." can you imagine people around you if you did that? But just living out your faith causes people to look and say - "Hey! I want that!" This is what I envision when I say Christian superheroes, sci-fi, fantasy - the characters living their lives doing what they do - and if they get a chance to share about their faith then great, but not running around spouting Bible verses in each and every sentence they say. Just showing the love of Christ.
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